Back to School...and Work!

Months have gone by since I swore up and down that I was moving on from Otis and not going to finish my MFA. Well, over the summer I spent my time job searching and interviewing for the few jobs out there. It was scary times, and while I got real close to a few jobs, it was a lot of rejection.

It was down to a week away from when school would have been starting for me, and I had just had an awesome interview with a really cool arts education non-profit in Pasadena. I had pulled out all the stops for this interview and felt really good about it. After a couple of days without hearing back, I started feeling bad about leaving another program, and felt like I just wanted this degree for what ever reason, that I couldn't explain or quantify.

I talked to my program director and somehow had convinced her into giving me more scholarship money and accepting all of my transfer credits. That means I would only need to take 4 more classes to finish this degree. Finally I heard from the job that they had hired someone else, someone that had just graduated from my program. This really made the decision for me, and with the new deal I had worked out with the school, I was going back, just like that. Months worth of stress and laboring over decisions, how to make decisions and utter denial was all resolved in 3 days. Sometimes time fixes things.

In going back to school, I was able to convince this non-profit, to create a position for me, and hire me on part-time. They would partially be paying me through my work-study. So going back to school actually gave me a job. At least I won't risk spending a year job searching and can finish this degree--part-time at that!

I am also still planning to apply to 2 graduate programs this year for the following year. One is in Urban Planning, and could be finished part-time while I start working. The other is a full-time program in Public Health. I realized that no one job path/degree is going to give me what I'm looking for. So the plan is that I will do both. Create a professional option where I can make money in an ethically responsible way and fund my own artwork.

This is of course only the plan for now, and I am open to new opportunities and change, so only time will tell, but I'm looking forward and enjoying the present.

I'm Engaged!

On Feb 14, 2010, Valentines Day, James Powell asked me to marry him at the geological site called Devil's Punch Bowl. It was a complete surprise, but perfect timing. We were both ready to let each other and the world know that this is where our relationship is going.

I have to say that the whole thing, the proposal and accepting, was less scary than I thought it would be. As a girl you see so many movies and moments about engagement and always wonder how it will happen to you. Will the ring be in my food? Will he ask me on national television? But in the end, my husband to be picked the most natural - literally in nature - way to ask, which I loved! I imagine that when you have the right person, and you've both already talked about your dreams and expectations, it makes the whole process a lot smoother and enjoyable.

About the date: as of now we are thinking of a longer engagement, maybe 2 years, so that we can both find a little more stability either academically or financially. This April James will know about his school options, which may constitute a move back across the country again. So I think after April we will set a tentative date.

So needless to say, February has been a very full month. There was my birthday on the 10th, our engagement on the 14th, and my LA Times Review on the 26th, which I'll blog about later.